Video poker has become very popular. One of the most common variations of video poker is Five Card Draw Poker. In general, for a play of a Five Card Draw Poker game, a player is dealt a hand of five cards face up from a 52-card deck of playing cards. The player can discard none of, one of, a plurality of but less than all of, or all of the five cards from the player's hand. Each discarded card is replaced with another card from the deck. After replacing any discarded cards, the cards of the player's hand are evaluated against a paytable to determine whether the player's hand forms a winning hand associated with one of a plurality of different winning hand categories.
The paytable is based on the type of game being played. Table 1 below includes the different winning hand categories, example winning hands associated with the different winning hand categories, and awards associated with the different winning hand categories for a 5 credit (maximum) wager for an example Jacks or Better Five Card Draw Poker Game. These winning hand categories are listed from highest to lowest ranking In this example, the winning hands of the “Jacks or Better” winning hand category include a pair of Jacks, a pair of Queens, a pair of Kings, and a pair of Aces.
TABLE 1Winning hand categories, example winning hands,and awards for example Jacks or Better Five Card Draw PokerWinning Hand Example AwardCategoryWinning Hand(5 credit bet)Royal FlushA   K   Q   J   10  4000Straight Flush10   9   8   7   6  250Four of a KindJ   J♥ J♦ J   3  125Full HouseA♥ A♦ A   6♦ 6  45FlushA   J   8   6   2  25Straight8♦ 7   6   5   4  20Three of a KindQ   Q♥ Q♦ 6♦ 2  15Two Pair8♦ 8♥ 5♥ 5   2  10Jacks or BetterK♦ K   8   7   2♥5
Multi-play video poker games such as Triple Play Video Poker, Five Play Video Poker, Ten Play Video Poker, Fifty Play Video Poker, and One Hundred Play Video Poker have also become very popular. Multi-play poker games include a primary hand and one or more additional hands that are played simultaneously. In many of these multi-play poker games, a primary hand of five cards is dealt to the player from a deck of cards, and the player can discard none of, one of, a plurality of but less than all of, or all of the five cards from the primary hand. Any held cards are duplicated in each additional hand. The primary hand is then completed (if necessary) by adding one or more replacement cards from the deck, and each additional hand is completed (if necessary) by adding one or more additional cards from a separate deck.
These video poker games are typically provided on electronic gaming machines (EGMs) as primary wagering games. Some EGMs also offer bonus or secondary games. An EGM typically triggers a play of a bonus or secondary game when the final outcome of a play of the primary game satisfies a particular condition (e.g., the reels of a spinning-reel type primary game spin and stop to display a designated quantity of bonus game triggering symbols). The wisely followed industry practice of tying the bonus game trigger to the primary game outcome can frustrate certain players who would prefer that two events that engender great anticipation—the bonus triggering event and the primary game outcome (and award)—be separate to render the entire play of the primary wagering game more enjoyable.
There is a continuing need to develop new and improved wagering gaming technology to solve these problems and provide EGM operators more flexibility in game offerings.